We all know how broken the for-profit banking system is, and how badly we all desire an alternative.

Due to the high level of demand for information and background on the upcoming Occupy Card, the Occupy Money Cooperative will be hosting an AMA ("Ask Me Anything") on Reddit, this Sunday, August 4th, at 9PM Eastern. (You can also tweet questions at us at @OccupyMoneyCoop.)

We invite you to join us for this event, and to come prepared with your best questions. Before asking a question, don't forget that our standard FAQ can be found here: http://www.occupycooperative.com/faq

Keep the support and enthusiasm coming to help us ensure a successful fundraising effort, leading into the launch of our first product offering: The Occupy Card.

31 Comments

Since September 2008 the US economy has been like a huge ticking time bomb,with the unregulated activities of The Banks the fuse that is slowly burning.This fuse has affected the international banking system & while citizens of the U$A were focused on an electoral contest this time last year, the real issues of the future of the U.S banking system, the future of the dollar and the future of the Euro were and still are - bringing home the abject realities of austerity and The Crapitalist Depression we're all in.

It's now time for audacity and more audacity. Education on Nationalisation of Banks is more important at the moment than any elections. Bankers like JP Morgan profit from war and these dark forces want another big war so that the crapitalists can recover. All peace and justice forces must be more vigilant.

Increasingly now it's becoming ever clearer that far more drastic political measures will be needed if an internationalised financial system is to be protected from the gambling of the top bankers in the United States. Wealth creation and a New Economic System are needed to meet the needs of human beings.

Hence I too, along with other posters here, applaud this clearly excellent development and revolutionary initiative : http://www.occupycooperative.com/ . As an aside - I knew people who knew Carne Ross (on the video) back in the day and they always spoke highly of him and he's a man who served 'The Man' in the past but has had his Damascene Moment since then. I respect this man and in support of this great News-Post, I append the following :

"Before the 1970s, banks were banks. They did what banks were supposed to do in a state capitalist economy: they took unused funds from your bank account, for example, and transferred them to some potentially useful purpose like helping a family buy a home or send a kid to college. That changed dramatically in the 1970s. Until then, there had been no financial crises since the Great Depression. The 1950s and 1960s had been a period of enormous growth, the highest in American history, maybe in economic history.

"And it was egalitarian. The lowest quintile did about as well as the highest quintile. Lots of people moved into reasonable lifestyles -- what’s called the “middle class” here, the “working class” in other countries -- but it was real. And the 1960s accelerated it. The activism of those years, after a pretty dismal decade, really civilized the country in lots of ways that are permanent.

"When the 1970s came along, there were sudden and sharp changes: de-industrialization, the off-shoring of production, and the shift to financial institutions, which grew enormously. I should say that, in the 1950s and 1960s, there was also the development of what several decades later became the high-tech economy: computers, the Internet, the IT Revolution developed substantially in the state sector.

"The developments that took place during the 1970s set off a vicious cycle. It led to the concentration of wealth increasingly in the hands of the financial sector. This doesn’t benefit the economy -- it probably harms it and society -- but it did lead to a tremendous concentration of wealth."

''The culture of banking is endemically fraudulent and it has bought off all political opposition. The fact is that fraudulent activity has been at the heart of international banking activities - as demonstrated by the systematic manipulation of the Libor rate controlled by a small group of banks.The Libor also underpins world derivatives markets worth hundreds of trillions.

''The consensus is that what is required is fundamental transformation of finance capitalism and that the current neoliberal model is exhausted but there's no thinking being generated about what alternatives we might pursue or how countries can regain control of their own destinies.'' Also please try to see :

''When the Occupiers took an interest in moving San Francisco’s money into a city-owned bank in 2011, it was chiefly on principle, in sympathy with the nationwide Move Your Money campaign. But recent scandals have transformed the move from a political statement into a matter of protecting the city’s deposits and reducing its debt burden. The chief roadblock to forming a municipal bank has been the concern that it was not allowed under state law, but a legal opinion issued by Deputy City Attorney Thomas J. Owen has now overcome that obstacle.

''A number of other California cities that have explored forming their own banks are also affected by this opinion. As of June 2008, 112 of California’s 478 cities are charter cities, including not only San Francisco but Los Angeles, Richmond, Oakland and Berkeley. A charter city is one governed by its own charter document rather than by local, state or national laws.

''The Bank of North Dakota, the nation’s only state-owned bank, has posed no risk to depositors or the state’s taxpayers in nearly a century of successful operation. Further, in this latest recession it has helped the state achieve a nationwide low in unemployment (3.2%) and the only budget surplus in the country. Meanwhile, the recent wave of bank scandals has shifted the focus to whether local governments can afford to risk keeping their funds in Wall Street banks.

''The question today is whether cities and counties can afford not to set up their own municipal banks, both to protect their money from confiscation and to take advantage of the very low interest rates and other perks available exclusively to the banking club. A government that owns its own bank can keep the interest and reinvest it locally, resulting in government savings of an estimated 35% to 40% just in interest. Costs can be reduced, and taxes can be cut or services can be increased. Banking and credit can become public utilities, sustaining the local economy rather than mining it for private gain; and banks can again become safe places to store our money.''

Can't help wondering what advantages this could have for Detroit too, not to mention everywhere else !!!

Some might think you are saying 2008 began our economic/banking heist/woes, nor would they be clear about who caused and soldiered this decades old (class war) attack and occupation, or what We can do about it

Nope the GFC began well before 2008 - that is just when most people woke up to it, just as the fan was switched to max. The banksters and their enablers had been piling the shit in front of said fan for a long time way before 2008. For some deeper insights that you are not going to ever see on MSM, also see :

''Markets! Finance! Scandal! Keiser Report is a no holds barred look at the shocking scandals behind the global financial headlines. From the collusion between Wall Street & Capitol Hill to the very latest banking crime wave, from bogus government economic statistics to the rigged stock markets, nothing escapes the eye of Max Keiser, a former stockbroker, inventor of the virtual specialist technology and co-founder of the Hollywood Stock Exchange. With the help of Keiser's co-host, Stacy Herbert & the guests from around the world, Keiser Report tells you what is really going on in the global economy.''

Ok, a worthy news-post to bump and so let me concur with your point but clarify what I said with an expansion : ''don't worry yourself with what 'some might think' OF ME'' ... unless of course - you were using ''some might think / say'' in the style of Fox-Snewzzz for effect ;-) The only really important point here is that you, we and all the peeps acquaint ourselves with :

The latest with episode (Thurs. 22nd Aug.) with Katherine Austin Fitts, an ex-government insider, as the second half guest is yet another exceptional show that goes to the heart of the Military/Security State.

You have to at least give headlines, I like to include a lead or a graph, I don't have time to plunge into all these unknown links people post, "Not Gunna Do It, Wouldn't Be Prudent, At This Juncture!!"

Such a service would allow people to protest big banks by giving them a way to pull their money out of the main stream financial market en mass, while continuing to pay their day-to-day finances. Finally there is a way for the little guy to collectively vote with their dollars.

''Private Banks Create Money Out Of Nothing and then lend it out at interest'' !!! This then is a real core hidden (in plain sight) truth of our times. I agree with your comment and in compliment of what you say and in solidarity with this great 'News-Post', I append and recommend :

''Four Horsemen'' is one of the few documentaries that takes on the foundations of the modern world and does not fail to look at solutions.

To be honest, whether or not you think those solutions are viable may not be the most important thing to ponder here. It’s more about the awareness that solutions are at hand and I very much appreciated the optimistic undertone of this excellent film which I am recommending to you and all.

Ultimately, the film actually discusses a different model of progress beyond apocalyptic scenarios and makes the fact that we might soon have to 'swing on a thinner material hammock', seem less dramatic than it might sound. It’s about taking personal responsibility too ; a new way of clear thinking and last but not least - self-education and organising accordingly.

You'll get this JH but you will have to hurry & watch as this link is not gonna be around for long before the same goons that have made ''Heist'' so hard to find, get there beady eyes on this link. Solidarity !

Prepare to be outraged. Newly obtained filings from a Florida woman's lawsuit uncover a horrifying scheme. For some selected excerpts from this important but infuriating article, please consider :

''A mortgage has two parts: the promissory note (the IOU from the borrower to the lender) and the mortgage, which creates the lien on the home in case of default. During the housing bubble, banks bought loans from originators, and then (in a process known as securitization) enacted a series of transactions that would eventually pool thousands of mortgages into bonds, sold all over the world to public pension funds, state and municipal governments and other investors. A trustee would pool the loans and sell the securities to investors, and the investors would get an annual percentage yield on their money.

''In order for the securitization to work, banks purchasing the mortgages had to physically convey the promissory note and the mortgage into the trust. The note had to be endorsed (the way an individual would endorse a check), and handed over to a document custodian for the trust, with a “mortgage assignment” confirming the transfer of ownership. And this had to be done before a 90-day cutoff date, with no grace period beyond that.

''Many documents were forged (the suit provides evidence of the signature of one robo-signer, Linda Green, written eight different ways), some were signed by “officers” of companies that went bankrupt years earlier, and dozens of assignments listed as the owner of the loan “Bogus Assignee for Intervening Assignments,” clearly a template that was never changed. One defendant in the case, Lender Processing Services, created masses of false documents on behalf of the banks, often using fake corporate officer titles and forged signatures. This was all done to establish standing to foreclose in courts, which the banks otherwise could not.

''By the end of 2009, private mortgage-backed securities trusts held one-third of all residential mortgages in the U.S. That means that tens of millions of home mortgages worth trillions of dollars have no legitimate underlying owner that can establish the right to foreclose. This hasn’t stopped banks from foreclosing anyway with false documents, and they are often successful, a testament to the breakdown of law in the judicial system. But to this day, the resulting chaos in disentangling ownership harms homeowners trying to sell these properties, as well as those trying to purchase them. And it renders some properties impossible to sell.

''To this day, banks foreclose on borrowers using fraudulent mortgage assignments, a legacy of failing to prosecute this conduct and instead letting banks pay a fine to settle it.''

Why wouldn't I post here ?!!! WTF are YOU doing on a O.W.S. forum ?!! Who are you and why are you wearing your ass as a hat ?! You go write letters si tu veux or go read something and then see IF you can come back with something vaguely useful or pertinent to the matter at hand. Here's some fodder :

''It sounds like hype to say it, but underwater home owners can change the course of history. It's not me saying that - it's the numbers. People who owe more than their homes are worth, really have the power to become the a powerful new political and economic force. They've got the numbers, they've got the votes, and - if they can get organized - they've got the economic clout. And we can prove it." from :

Speaking from the perspective of someone who stepped into the money'ed world in the 1990's and stepped away with a good size piece of the pie, this is indeed an awesome concept, I have banked with only credit unions for a long time and have been a 4 decade reader of Consumer Report's, this appears to be be a real tangible way to have an impact. I want to post up a link to these guys that I have posted about before here as well, since they are trying to bring manufacturing back to the people's control as well, please stop by and take a look they are continuing with the hard long work, even after the TED Talk buzz has faded. http://opensourceecology.org/

You'll get this 'gno' but you'll have to hurry & watch as this link is not gonna be around for long before the same goons that have made ''Heist'' so hard to find, get there beady eyes on this link. Solidarity !

I have a suggestion for another possible service you might offer with the OMC. Today more than ever many people prefer to use cash for transactions. This saves the local retailer credit cards fees and supports local business. We also don't want the NSA to have access to records all our purchases. Nevertheless, we may miss the convenient transaction records offered by credit cards that help us with book-keeping and taxes. Could OMC help with this? Could the OMC get swiped at a cash transaction strictly to keep track of purchases? Can OMC guarantee privacy by issuing cards based on assigned and encrypted numbers instead of names?